An Unpublished Essay on the Trinity

JONATHAN EDWARDS

It is common when speaking of the Divine happiness to say that
God is infinitely happy in the enjoyment of Himself, in perfectly
beholding and infinitely loving, and rejoicing in, His own essence
and perfection, and accordingly it must be supposed that God
perpetually and eternally has a most perfect idea of Himself, as it
were an exact image and representation of Himself ever before Him
and in actual view, and from hence arises a most pure and perfect
act or energy in the Godhead, which is the Divine love, complacence
and joy. The knowledge or view which God has of Himself must
necessarily be conceived to be something distinct from His mere
direct existence. There must be something that answers to our
reflection. The reflection as we reflect on our own minds carries
something of imperfection in it. However, if God beholds Himself so
as thence to have delight and joy in Himself He must become his own
object. There must be a duplicity. There is God and the idea of
God, if it be proper to call a conception of that that is purely
spiritual an idea.

If a man could have an absolutely perfect idea of all that
passed in his mind, all the series of ideas and exercises in every
respect perfect as to order, degree, circumstance and for any
particular space of time past, suppose the last hour, he would
really to all intents and purpose be over again what he was that
last hour. And if it were possible for a man by reflection
perfectly to contemplate all that is in his own mind in an hour, as
it is and at the same time that it is there in its first and direct
existence; if a man, that is, had a perfect reflex or contemplative
idea of every thought at the same moment or moments that that
thought was and of every exercise at and during the same time that
that exercise was, and so through a whole hour, a man would really
be two during that time, he would be indeed double, he would be
twice at once. The idea he has of himself would be himself
again.

Note, by having a reflex or contemplative idea of what passes in
our own minds I don't mean consciousness only. There is a great
difference between a man's having a view of himself, reflex or
contemplative idea of himself so as to delight in his own beauty or
excellency, and a mere direct consciousness. Or if we mean by
consciousness of what is in our own minds anything besides the mere
simple existence in our minds of what is there, it is nothing but a
power by reflection to view or contemplate what passes.

Therefore as God with perfect clearness, fullness and strength,
understands Himself, views His own essence (in which there is no
distinction of substance and act but which is wholly substance and
wholly act), that idea which God hath of Himself is absolutely
Himself. This representation of the Divine nature and essence is
the Divine nature and essence again: so that by God's thinking of
the Deity must certainly be generated. Hereby there is another
person begotten, there is another Infinite Eternal Almighty and
most holy and the same God, the very same Divine nature.

And this Person is the second person in the Trinity, the Only
Begotten and dearly Beloved Son of God; He is the eternal,
necessary, perfect, substantial and personal idea which God hath of
Himself; and that it is so seems to me to be abundantly confirmed
by the Word of God.

Nothing can more agree with the account the Scripture gives us
of the Son of God, His being in the form of God and His express and
perfect image and representation: (II Cor. 4:4) "Lest the light of
the glorious Gospel of Christ Who is the image of God should shine
unto them." (Phil. 2:6) "Who being in the form of God." (Col. 1:15)
"Who is the image of the invisible God." (Heb. 1:3) "Who being the
brightness of His glory and the express image of His person."

Christ is called the face of God (Exod. 33:14): the word [A.V.
presence] in the original signifies face, looks, form or
appearance. Now what can be so properly and fitly called so with
respect to God as God's own perfect idea of Himself whereby He has
every moment a view of His own essence: this idea is that "face of
God" which God sees as a man sees his own face in a looking glass.
'Tis of such form or appearance whereby God eternally appears to
Himself. The root that the original word comes from signifies to
look upon or behold: now what is that which God looks upon or
beholds in so eminent a manner as He doth on His own idea or that
perfect image of Himself which He has in view. This is what is
eminently in God's presence and is therefore called the angel of
God's presence or face (Isa. 63:9). But that the Son of God is
God's own eternal and perfect idea is a thing we have yet much more
expressly revealed in God's Word. First, in that Christ is called
"the wisdom of God." If we are taught in the Scripture that Christ
is the same with God's wisdom or knowledge, then it teaches us that
He is the same with God's perfect and eternal idea. They are the
same as we have already observed and I suppose none will deny. But
Christ is said to be the wisdom of God (I Cor. 1:24, Luke 11:49,
compare with Matt. 23:34); and how much doth Christ speak in
Proverbs under the name of Wisdom especially in the 8th
chapter.

The Godhead being thus begotten by God's loving an idea of
Himself and shewing forth in a distinct subsistence or person in
that idea, there proceeds a most pure act, and an infinitely holy
and sacred energy arises between the Father and Son in mutually
loving and delighting in each other, for their love and joy is
mutual, (Prov. 8:30) "I was daily His delight rejoicing always
before Him." This is the eternal and most perfect and essential act
of the Divine nature, wherein the Godhead acts to an infinite
degree and in the most perfect manner possible. The Deity becomes
all act, the Divine essence itself flows out and is as it were
breathed forth in love and joy. So that the Godhead therein stands
forth in yet another manner of subsistence, and there proceeds the
third Person in the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, viz., the Deity in
act, for there is no other act but the act of the will.

We may learn by the Word of God that the Godhead or the Divine
nature and essence does subsist in love. (I John 4:8) "He that
loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love." In the context of
which place I think it is plainly intimated to us that the Holy
Spirit is that Love, as in the 12th and 13th verses. "If we love
one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in us;
hereby know we that we dwell in Him ... because He hath given us of
His Spirit." 'Tis the same argument in both verses. In the 12th
verse the apostle argues that if we have love dwelling in us we
have God dwelling in us, and in the 13th verse He clears the force
of the argument by this that love is God's Spirit. Seeing we have
God's Spirit dwelling in us, we have God dwelling in [in us],
supposing it as a thing granted and allowed that God's Spirit is
God. 'Tis evident also by this that God's dwelling in us and His
love or the love that He hath exerciseth, being in us, are the same
thing. The same is intimated in the same manner in the last verse
of the foregoing chapter. The apostle was, in the foregoing verses,
speaking of love as a sure sign of sincerity and our acceptance
with God, beginning with the 18th verse, and he sums up the
argument thus in the last verse, "and hereby do we know that He
abideth in us by the Spirit that He hath given us."

The Scripture seems in many places to speak of love in
Christians as if it were the same with the Spirit of God in them,
or at least as the prime and most natural breathing and acting of
the Spirit in the soul. (Phil. 2:1) "If there be therefore any
consolation in Christ, any comfort of love, any fellowship of the
Spirit, if any bowels of mercies, fulfil ye my joy that ye be
likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one
mind." (II Cor. 6:6) "By kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love
unfeigned." (Romans 15:30) "Now I beseech you, brethren, for the
Lord Jesus Christ's sake, and for the love of the Spirit." (Col.
1:8) "Who declared unto us your love in the Spirit." (Rom. 5:5)
"Having the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost
which is given to us." (Gal. 5:13-16) "Use not liberty for an
occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the
law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: Thou shalt love thy
neighbour as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one another, take
heed that ye be not consumed one of another. This I say then, Walk
in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh."
The Apostle argues that Christian liberty does not make way for
fulfilling the lusts of the flesh in biting and devouring one
another and the like, because a principle of love which was the
fulfilling of the law would prevent it, and in the 16th verse he
asserts the same thing in other words: "This I say then walk in the
Spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh."

The third and last office of the Holy Spirit is to comfort and
delight the souls of God's people, and thus one of His names is the
Comforter, and thus we have the phrase of "joy in the Holy Ghost."
(I Thess. 1:6) "Having received the Word in much affliction with
joy of the Holy Ghost." (Rom. 14: 17) "The kingdom of God is ...
righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." (Acts 9:31)
"Walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy
Ghost." But how well doth this agree with the Holy Ghost being
God's joy and delight, (Acts 13:52) "And the disciples were filled
with joy and with the Holy Ghost"--meaning as I suppose that they
were filled with spiritual joy.

This is confirmed by the symbol of the Holy Ghost, viz., a dove,
which is the emblem of love or a lover, and is so used in
Scripture, and especially often so in Solomon's Song, (1:15)
"Behold thou art fair; my love, behold thou art fair; thou hast
dove's eyes:" i.e. "Eyes of love," and again 4:1, the same words;
and 5:12, "His eyes are as the eyes of doves," and 5:2, "My love,
my dove," and 2:14 and 6:9; and this I believe to be the reason
that the dove alone of all birds (except the sparrow in the single
case of the leprosy) was appointed to be offered in sacrifice
because of its innocence and because it is the emblem of love, love
being the most acceptable sacrifice to God. It was under this
similitude that the Holy Ghost descended from the Father on Christ
at His baptism, signifying the infinite love of the Father to the
Son, Who is the true David, or beloved, as we said before.

The same was signified by what was exhibited to the eye in the
appearance there was of the Holy Ghost descending from the Father
to the Son in the shape of a dove, as was signified by what was
exhibited to the eye in the voice there was at the same time, viz.,
"This is My well Beloved Son in Whom I am well pleased."

(That God's love or His loving kindness is the same with the
Holy Ghost seems to be plain by Psalm 36:7-9, "How excellent (or
how precious as 'tis in the Hebrew) is Thy loving-kindness O God,
therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of
Thy wings, they shall be abundantly satisfied (in the Hebrew
"watered") with the fatness of Thy house and Thou shalt make them
to drink of the river of Thy pleasures; for with Thee is the
fountain of life and in Thy light shall we see light."

Doubtless that precious loving-kindness and that fatness of
God's house and river of His pleasures and the water of the
fountain of life and God's light here spoken [of] are the same
thing; by which we learn that the Holy anointing oil that was kept
in the House of God, which was a type of the Holy Ghost,
represented God's love, and that the "River of water of life"
spoken of in the 22nd [chapter] of Revelation, which proceeds out
of the throne of God and of the Lamb, which is the same with
Ezekiel's vision of Living and life-giving water, which is here [in
Ps. 36] called the "Fountain of life and river of God's pleasures,"
is God's loving-kindness.

But Christ Himself expressly teaches us that by spiritual
fountains and rivers of water of life is meant the Holy Ghost.
(John 4:14; 7:38,39).That by the river of God's pleasures here is
meant the same thing with the pure river of water of life spoken of
in Revelation 22:1, will be much confirmed if we compare those
verses with Revelation 21:23, 24; 22:1,5. (See the notes on
chapters 21, 23, 24) I think if we compare these places and weigh
them we cannot doubt but that it is the same happiness that is
meant in this Psalm which is spoken of there.)

So this well agrees with the similitudes and metaphors that are
used about the Holy Ghost in Scripture, such as water, fire,
breath, wind, oil, wine, a spring, a river, a being poured out and
shed forth, and a being breathed forth. Can there any spiritual
thing be thought, or anything belonging to any spiritual being to
which such kind of metaphors so naturally agree, as to the
affection of a Spirit. The affection, love or joy, may be said to
flow out as water or to be breathed forth as breath or wind. But it
would [not] sound so well to say that an idea or judgment flows out
or is breathed forth.

It is no way different to say of the affection that it is warm,
or to compare love to fire, but it would not seem natural to say
the same of perception or reason. It seems natural enough to say
that the soul is poured out in affection or that love or delight
are shed abroad: (Rom. 5:5) "The love of God is shed abroad in our
hearts," but it suits with nothing else belonging to a spiritual
being.

This is that "river of water of life" spoken of in the 22nd
[chapter] of Revelation, which proceeds from the throne of the
Father and the Son, for the rivers of living water or water of life
are the Holy Ghost, by the same apostle's own interpretation (John
7:38, 39); and the Holy Ghost being the infinite delight and
pleasure of God, the river is called the river of God's pleasures
(Ps. 36:8), not God's river of pleasures, which I suppose signifies
the same as the fatness of God's House, which they that trust in
God shall be watered with, by which fatness of God's House I
suppose is signified the same thing which oil typifies.

It is a confirmation that the Holy Ghost is God's love and
delight, because the saints communion with God consists in their
partaking of the Holy Ghost. The communion of saints is twofold:
'tis their communion with God and communion with one another, (I
John 1:3) "That ye also may have fellowship with us, and truly our
fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ."
Communion is a common partaking of good, either of excellency or
happiness, so that when it is said the saints have communion or
fellowship with the Father and with the Son, the meaning of it is
that they partake with the Father and the Son of their good, which
is either their excellency and glory (II Peter 1:4), "Ye are made
partakers of the Divine nature"; Heb. 12:10, "That we might be
partakers of His holiness;" John 17:22, 23, "And the glory which
Thou hast given Me I have given them, that they may be one, even as
we are one, I in them and Thou in Me"); or of their joy and
happiness: (John 17:13) "That they might have My joy fulfilled in
themselves."

But the Holy Ghost being the love and joy of God is His beauty
and happiness, and it is in our partaking of the same Holy Spirit
that our communion with God consists: (II Cor. 13:14) "The grace of
the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of
the Holy Ghost, be with you all, Amen." They are not different
benefits but the same that the Apostle here wisheth, viz., the Holy
Ghost: in partaking of the Holy Ghost, we possess and enjoy the
love and grace of the Father and the Son, for the Holy Ghost is
that love and grace, and therefore I suppose it is that in that
forementioned place, (I John 1:3). We are said to have fellowship
with the Son and not with the Holy Ghost, because therein consists
our fellowship with the Father and the Son, even in partaking with
them of the Holy Ghost.

In this also eminently consists our communion with the Son that
we drink into the same Spirit. This is the common excellency and
joy and happiness in which they all are united; 'tis the bond of
perfectness by which they are one in the Father and the Son as the
Father is in the Son.

I can think of no other good account that can be given of the
apostle Paul's wishing grace and peace from God the Father and the
Lord Jesus Christ in the beginning of his Epistles, without ever
mentioning the Holy Ghost, - as we find it thirteen times in his
salutations in the beginnings of his Epistles, - but [i.e., except]
that the Holy Ghost is Himself love and grace of God the Father and
the Lord Jesus Christ; and in his blessing at the end of his second
Epistle to the Corinthians where all three Persons are mentioned he
wishes grace and love from the Son and the Father [except that] in
the communion or the partaking of the Holy Ghost, the blessing is
from the Father and the Son in the Holy Ghost. But the blessing
from the Holy Ghost is Himself, the communication of Himself.
Christ promises that He and the Father will love believers (John
14:21,23), but no mention is made of the Holy Ghost, and the love
of Christ and the love of the Father are often distinctly
mentioned, but never any mention of the Holy Ghost's love.

(This I suppose to be the reason why we have never any account
of the Holy Ghost's loving either the Father or the Son, or of the
Son's or the Father's loving the Holy Ghost, or of the Holy Ghost's
loving the saints, tho these things are so often predicated of both
the other Persons.)

And this I suppose to be that blessed Trinity that we read of in
the Holy Scriptures. The Father is the Deity subsisting in the
prime, un-originated and most absolute manner, or the Deity in its
direct existence. The Son is the Deity generated by God's
understanding, or having an idea of Himself and subsisting in that
idea. The Holy Ghost is the Deity subsisting in act, or the Divine
essence flowing out and breathed forth in God's Infinite love to
and delight in Himself. And I believe the whole Divine essence does
truly and distinctly subsist both in the Divine idea and Divine
love, and that each of them are properly distinct Persons.

It is a maxim amongst divines that everything that is in God is
God which must be understood of real attributes and not of mere
modalities. If a man should tell me that the immutability of God is
God, or that the omnipresence of God and authority of God is God, I
should not be able to think of any rational meaning of what he
said. It hardly sounds to me proper to say that God's being without
change is God, or that God's being everywhere is God, or that God's
having a right of government over creatures is God.

But if it be meant that the real attributes of God, viz., His
understanding and love are God, then what we have said may in some
measure explain how it is so, for Deity subsists in them
distinctly; so they are distinct Divine Persons.

One of the principal objections that I can think of against what
has been supposed is concerning the Personality of the Holy Ghost -
that this scheme of things does not seem well to consist with [the
fact] that a person is that which hath understanding and will. If
the three in the Godhead are Persons they doubtless each of them
have understanding, but this makes the understanding one distinct
person and love another. How therefore can this love be said to
have understanding, (Here I would observe that divines have not
been wont to suppose that these three had three distinct
understandings, but all one and the same understanding.)

In order to clear up this matter let it be considered that the
whole Divine office is supposed truly and properly to subsist in
each of these three, viz., God and His understanding and love, and
that there is such a wonderful union between them that they are,
after an ineffable and inconceivable manner, One in Another, so
that One hath Another and they have communion in One Another and
are as it were predicable One of Another; as Christ said of Himself
and the Father "I am in the Father and the Father in Me," so may it
be said concerning all the Persons in the Trinity, the Father is in
the Son and the Son in the Father, the Holy Ghost is in the Father,
and the Father in the Holy Ghost, the Holy Ghost is in the Son, and
the Son in the Holy Ghost, and the Father understands because the
Son Who is the Divine understanding is in Him, the Father loves
because the Holy Ghost is in Him, so the Son loves because the Holy
Ghost is in Him and proceeds from Him, so the Holy Ghost or the
Divine essence subsisting is Divine, but understands because the
Son the Divine Idea is in Him.

Understanding may be predicated of this love because it is the
love of the understanding both objectively and subjectively. God
loves the understanding and that understanding also flows out in
love so that the Divine understanding is in the Deity subsisting in
love. It is not a blind love. Even in creatures there is
consciousness included in the very nature of the will or act of the
soul, and tho perhaps not so that it can so properly be said that
it is a seeing or undemanding will, yet it may truly and properly
be said so in God by reason of God's infinitely more perfect manner
of acting so that the whole Divine essence flows out and subsists
in this act, and the Son is in the Holy Spirit tho it does not
proceed from Him by reason ( of the fact) that the understanding
must be considered as prior in the order of nature to the will or
love or act, both in creatures and in the Creator. The
understanding is so in the Spirit that the Spirit may be said to
know, as the Spirit of God is truly and perfectly said to know and
to search all things, even the deep things of God.

(All the Three are Persons for they all have understanding and
will. There is understanding and will in the Father, as the Son and
the Holy Ghost are in Him and proceed from Him. There is
understanding and will in the Son, as He is understanding and as
the Holy Ghost is in Him and proceeds from Him. There is
understanding and will in the Holy Ghost as He is the Divine will
and as the Son is in Him.

Nor is it to be looked upon as a strange and unreasonable
figment that the Persons should be said to have an understanding or
love by another person's being in them, for we have Scripture
ground to conclude so concerning the Father's having wisdom and
understanding or reason that it is by the Son's being in Him;
because we are there informed that He is the wisdom and reason and
truth of God, and hereby God is wise by His own wisdom being in
Him. Understanding and wisdom is in the Father as the Son is in Him
and proceeds from Him. Understanding is in the Holy Ghost because
the Son is in Him, not as proceeding from Him but as flowing out in
Him.)

But I don't pretend fully to explain how these things are and I
am sensible a hundred other objections may be made and puzzling
doubts and questions raised that I can't solve. I am far from
pretending to explaining the Trinity so as to render it no longer a
mystery. I think it to be the highest and deepest of all Divine
mysteries still, notwithstanding anything that I have said or
conceived about it. I don't intend to explain the Trinity. But
Scripture with reason may lead to say something further of it than
has been wont to be said, tho there are still left many things
pertaining to it incomprehensible.

It seems to me that what I have here supposed concerning the
Trinity is exceeding analogous to the Gospel scheme and agreeable
to the tenor of the whole New Testament and abundantly illustrative
of Gospel doctrines, as might be particularly shown, would it not
exceedingly lengthen out this discourse.

I shall only now briefly observe that many things that have been
wont to be said by orthodox divines about the Trinity are hereby
illustrated. Hereby we see how the Father is the fountain of the
Godhead, and why when He is spoken of in Scripture He is so often,
without any addition or distinction, called God, which has led some
to think that He only was truly and properly God. Hereby we may see
why in the economy of the Persons of the Trinity the Father should
sustain the dignity of the Deity, that the Father should have it as
His office to uphold and maintain the rights of the Godhead and
should be God not only by essence, but as it were, by His
economical office.

Hereby is illustrated the doctrine of the Holy Ghost. Proceeding
[from] both the Father and the Son. Hereby we see how that it is
possible for the Son to be begotten by the Father and the Holy
Ghost to proceed from the Father and Son, and yet that all the
Persons should be Co-etemal. Hereby we may more clearly understand
the equality of the Persons among themselves, and that they are
every way equal in the society or family of the three.

They are equal in honor: besides the honor which is common to
them all, viz., that they are all God, each has His peculiar honor
in the society or family. They are equal not only in essence, but
the Father's honor is that He is, as it were, the Author of perfect
and Infinite wisdom. The Son's honor is that He is that perfect and
Divine wisdom itself the excellency of which is that from whence
arises the honor of being the author or Generator of it. The honor
of the Father and the Son is that they are infinitely excellent, or
that from them infinite excellency proceeds; but the honor of the
Holy Ghost is equal for He is that Divine excellency and beauty
itself.

'Tis the honor of the Father and the Son that they are
infinitely holy and are the fountain of holiness, but the honor of
the Holy Ghost is that holiness itself. The honor of the Father and
the Son is [that] they are infinitely happy and are the original
and fountain of happiness and the honor of the Holy Ghost is equal
for He is infinite happiness and joy itself.

The honor of the Father is that He is the fountain of the Deity
as He from Whom proceed both the Divine wisdom and also excellency
and happiness. The honor of the Son is equal for He is Himself the
Divine wisdom and is He from Whom proceeds the Divine excellency
and happiness, and the honor of the Holy Ghost is equal for He is
the beauty and happiness of both the other Persons.

By this also we may fully understand the equality of each
Person's concern in the work of redemption, and the equality of the
Redeemed's concern with them and dependence upon them, and the
equality and honor and praise due to each of them. Glory belongs to
the Father and the Son that they so greatly loved the world: to the
Father that He so loved that He gave His Only Begotten Son: to the
Son that He so loved the world as to give up Himself.

But there is equal glory due to the Holy Ghost for He is that
love of the Father and the Son to the world. Just so much as the
two first Persons glorify themselves by showing the astonishing
greatness of their love and grace, just so much is that wonderful
love and grace glorified Who is the Holy Ghost. It shows the
Infinite dignity and excellency of the Father that the Son so
delighted and prized His honor and glory that He stooped infinitely
low rather than [that] men's salvation should be to the injury of
that honor and glory.

It showed the infinite excellency and worth of the Son that the
Father so delighted in Him that for His sake He was ready to quit
His anger and receive into favor those that had [deserved?]
infinitely ill at His Hands, and what was done shows how great the
excellency and worth of the Holy Ghost Who is that delight which
the Father and the Son have in each other: it shows it to be
Infinite. So great as the worth of a thing delighted in is to any
one, so great is the worth of that delight and joy itself which he
has in it.

Our dependence is equally upon each in this office. The Father
appoints and provides the Redeemer, and Himself accepts the price
and grants the thing purchased; the Son is the Redeemer by offering
Himself and is the price; and the Holy Ghost immediately
communicates to us the thing purchased by communicating Himself,
and He is the thing purchased. The sum of all that Christ purchased
for men was the Holy Ghost: (Gal. 3:13,14) "He was made a curse for
us... that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through
faith."

What Christ purchased for us was that we have communion with God
[which] is His good, which consists in partaking of the Holy Ghost:
as we have shown, all the blessedness of the Redeemed consists in
their partaking of Christ's fullness, which consists in partaking
of that Spirit which is given not by measure unto him: the oil that
is poured on the head of the Church runs down to the members of His
body and to the skirts of His garment (Ps. 133:2). Christ purchased
for us that we should have the favor of God and might enjoy His
love, but this love is the Holy Ghost.

Christ purchased for us true spiritual excellency, grace and
holiness, the sum of which is love to God, which is [nothing] but
the indwelling of the Holy Ghost in the heart. Christ purchased for
us spiritual joy and comfort, which is in a participation of God's
joy and happiness, which joy and happiness is the Holy Ghost as we
have shown. The Holy Ghost is the sum of all good things. Good
things and the Holy Spirit are synonymous expressions in Scripture:
(Matt. 7:11) "How much more shall your Heavenly Father give the
Holy Spirit to them that ask Him." The sum of all spiritual good
which the finite have in this world is that spring of living water
within them which we read of (John 4:10), and those rivers of
living water flowing out of them which we read of (John 7:38,39),
which we are there told means the Holy Ghost; and the sum of all
happiness in the other world is that river of water of life which
proceeds out of the throne of God and the Lamb, which we read of
(Rev. 22:1), which is the River of God's pleasures and is the Holy
Ghost and therefore the sum of the Gospel invitation to come and
take the water of life (verse 17).

The Holy Ghost is the purchased possession and inheritance of
the saints, as appears because that little of it which the saints
have in this world is said to be the earnest of that purchased
inheritance. (Eph. 1:14) Tis an earnest of that which we are to
have a fullness of hereafter. (II Cor. 1:22; 5:5) The Holy Ghost is
the great subject of all Gospel promises and therefore is called
the Spirit of promise. (Eph. 1:13) This is called the promise of
the Father (Luke 24:49), and the like in other places. (If the Holy
Ghost be a comprehension of all good things promised in the Gospel,
we may easily see the force of the Apostle's arguing (Gal. 3:2),
"This only would I know, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the
law or by the hearing of faith?") So that it is God of Whom our
good is purchased and it is God that purchases it and it is God
also that is the thing purchased.

Thus all our good things are of God and through God and in God,
as we read in Romans 11:36: "For of Him and through Him and to Him
(or in Him as eis is rendered, I Cor. 8:6) are all things."
"To Whom be glory forever." All our good is of God the Father, it
is all through God the Son, and all is in the Holy Ghost as He is
Himself all our good. God is Himself the portion and purchased
inheritance of His people. Thus God is the Alpha and the Omega in
this affair of redemption.

If we suppose no more than used to be supposed about the Holy
Ghost, the concern of the Holy Ghost in the work of redemption is
not equal with the Father's and the Son's, nor is there an equal
part of the glory of this work belonging to Him: merely to apply to
us or immediately to give or hand to us the blessing purchased,
after it was purchased, as subservient to the other two Persons, is
but a little thing [compared] to the purchasing of it by the paying
an Infinite price, by Christ offering up Himself in sacrifice to
procure it, and it is but a little thing to God the Father's giving
His infinitely dear Son to be a sacrifice for us and upon His
purchase to afford to us all the blessings of His purchased.

But according to this there is an equality. To be the love of
God to the world is as much as for the Father and the Son to do so
much from love to the world, and to be the thing purchased was as
much as to be the price. The price and the thing bought with that
price are equal. And it is as much as to afford the thing
purchased, for the glory that belongs to Him that affords the thing
purchased arises from the worth of that thing that He affords and
therefore it is the same glory and an equal glory; the glory of the
thing itself is its worth and that is also the glory of him that
affords it.

There are two more eminent and remarkable images of the Trinity
among the creatures. The one is in the spiritual creation, the soul
of man. There is the mind, and the understanding or idea, and the
spirit of the mind as it is called in Scripture, i.e., the
disposition, the will or affection. The other is in the visible
creation, viz., the Sun. The father is as the substance of the Sun.
(By substance I don't mean in a philosophical sense, but the Sun as
to its internal constitution.) The Son is as the brightness and
glory of the disk of the Sun or that bright and glorious form under
which it appears to our eyes. The Holy Ghost is the action of the
Sun which is within the Sun in its intestine heat, and, being
diffusive, enlightens, warms, enlivens and comforts the world. The
Spirit as it is God's Infinite love to Himself and happiness in
Himself, is as the internal heat of the Sun, but as it is that by
which God communicates Himself, it is as the emanation of the sun's
action, or the emitted beams of the sun.

The various sorts of rays of the sun and their beautiful colors
do well represent the Spirit. They well represent the love and
grace of God and were made use of for this purpose in the rainbow
after the flood, and I suppose also in that rainbow that was seen
round about the throne by Ezekiel (Ezek. 1:28; Rev. 4:3) and round
the head of Christ by John (Rev. 10:1), or the amiable excellency
of God and the various beautiful graces and virtues of the Spirit.
These beautiful colors of the sunbeams we find made use of in
Scripture for this purpose, viz., to represent the graces of the
Spirit, as (Ps. 68:13) "Though ye have lien among the pots, yet
shall be as the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her
feathers with yellow gold," i.e., like the light reflected in
various beautiful colors from the feathers of a dove, which colors
represent the graces of the Heavenly Dove.

The same I suppose is signified by the various beautiful colors
reflected from the precious stones of the breastplate, and that
these spiritual ornaments of the Church are what are represented by
the various colors of the foundation and gates of the new Jerusalem
(Rev. 21; Isaiah 54:11, etc.) and the stones of the Temple (I
Chron. 29: 2); and I believe the variety there is in the rays of
the Sun and their beautiful colors was designed by the Creator for
this very purpose, and indeed that the whole visible creation which
is but the shadow of being is so made and ordered by God as to
typify and represent spiritual things, for which I could give many
reasons. (I don't propose this merely as an hypothesis but as a
part of Divine truth sufficiently and fully ascertained by the
revelation God has made in the Holy Scriptures.)

I am sensible what kind of objections many will be ready to make
against what has been said, what difficulties will be immediately
found, How can this be? And how can that be!

I am far from affording this as any explication of this mystery,
that unfolds and renews the mysteriousness and incomprehensibleness
of it, for I am sensible that however by what has been said some
difficulties are lessened, others that are new appear, and the
number of those things that appear mysterious, wonderful and
incomprehensible, is increased by it. I offer it only as a farther
manifestation of what of Divine truth the Word of God exhibits to
the view of our minds concerning this great mystery.

I think the Word of God teaches us more things concerning it to
be believed by us than have been generally believed, and that it
exhibits many things concerning it exceeding [i.e., more] glorious
and wonderful than have been taken notice of; yea, that it reveals
or exhibits many more wonderful mysteries than those which have
been taken notice of; which mysteries that have been overvalued are
incomprehensible things and yet have been exhibited in the Word of
God tho they are an addition to the number of mysteries that are in
it. No wonder that the more things we are told concerning that
which is so infinitely above our reach, the number of visible
mysteries increases.

When we tell a child a little concerning God he has not an
hundredth part so many mysteries in view on the nature and
attributes of God and His works of creation and Providence as one
that is told much concerning God in a Divinity School; and yet he
knows much more about God and has a much clearer understanding of
things of Divinity and is able more clearly to explicate some
things that were dark and very unintelligible to him; I humbly
apprehend that the things that have been observed increase the
number of visible mysteries in the Godhead in no other manner than
as by them we perceive that God has told us much more about it than
was before generally observed.

Under the Old Testament the Church of God was not told near so
much about the Trinity as they are now. But what the New Testament
has revealed, tho it has more opened to our view the nature of God,
yet it has increased the number of visible mysteries and they thus
appear to us exceeding wonderful and incomprehensible. And so also
it has come to pass in the Church being told [i.e., that the
churches are told] more about the incarnation and the satisfaction
of Christ and other Gospel doctrines.

It is so not only in Divine things but natural things. He that
looks on a plant, or the parts of the bodies of animals, or any
other works of nature, at a great distance where he has but an
obscure sight-of it, may see something in it wonderful and beyond
his comprehension, but he that is near to it and views them
narrowly indeed understands more about them, has a clearer and
distinct sight of them, and yet the number of things that are
wonderful and mysterious in them that appear to him are much more
than before, and, if he views them with a microscope, the number of
the wonders that he sees will be increased still but yet the
microscope gives him more a true knowledge concerning them.

God is never said to love the Holy Ghost nor are any epithets
that betoken love anywhere given to Him, tho so many are ascribed
to the Son, as God's Elect, The Beloved, He in Whom God's soul
delights, He in Whom He is well pleased, etc. Yea such epithets
seem to be ascribed to the Son as tho He were the object of love
exclusive of all other persons, as tho there were no person
whatsoever to share the love of the Father with the Son. To this
purpose evidently He is called God's Only Begotten Son, at the time
that it is added, "In Whom He is well pleased." There is nothing in
Scripture that speaks of any acceptance of the Holy Ghost or any
reward or any mutual friendship between the Holy Ghost and either
of the other Persons, or any command to love the Holy Ghost or to
delight in or have any complacence in [the Holy Ghost], tho such
commands are so frequent with respect to the other Persons.

That knowledge or understanding in God which we must conceive of
as first is His knowledge of every thing possible. That love which
must be this knowledge is what we must conceive of as belonging to
the essence of the Godhead in it's first subsistence. Then comes a
reflex act of knowledge and His viewing Himself and knowing Himself
and so knowing His own knowledge and so the Son is begotten. There
is such a thing in God as knowledge of knowledge, an idea of an
idea. Which can be nothing else than the idea or knowledge
repeated.

The world was made for the Son of God especially. For God made
the world for Himself from love to Himself; but God loves Himself
only in a reflex act. He views Himself and so loves Himself, so He
makes the world for Himself viewed and reflected on, and that is.
The same with Himself repeated or begotten in His own idea, and
that is His Son. When God considers of making any thing for Himself
He presents Himself before Himself and views Himself as His End,
and that viewing Himself is the same as reflecting on Himself or
having an idea of Himself, and to make the world for the Godhead
thus viewed and understood is to make the world for the Godhead
begotten and that is to make the world for the Son of God.

The love of God as it flows forth ad extra is wholly determined
and directed by Divine wisdom, so that those only are the objects
of it that Divine wisdom chooses, so that the creation of the world
is to gratify Divine love as that is exercised by Divine wisdom.
But Christ is Divine wisdom so that the world is made to gratify
Divine love as exercised by Christ or to gratify the love that is
in Christ's heart, or to provide a spouse for Christ. Those
creatures which wisdom chooses for the object of Divine love as
Christ's elect spouse and especially those elect creatures that
wisdom chiefly pitches upon and makes the end of the rest of
creatures.